May 05

Profound Confusion: ANGELS IN AMERICA

Posted on May 5, 2014 by craigidlebrook

PART 1 MILLENNIUM APPROACHES

Presented by The Umbrella Community Arts Center
Written by Tony Kushner
Directed by Nancy Curran Willis

April 18 – April 27^th, 2014
Concord, MA
Umbrella Community Arts on Facebook

Review by Craig Idlebrook

(Concord) There was a time we would like to forget in U.S. history when AIDS was a painful, quick, and lonely death sentence, one largely suffered by gay men. The gay community was stratified into victims and survivors, and everyone was scared and scarred. Yet amidst this plague, the gay community did not break, having developed an inner strength in the face of years of oppression that galvanized it to action. Continue reading →

Apr 08

Timeless Greed is Coming to MRT with Glengarry Glen Ross

Posted on April 8, 2013 by craigidlebrook

Glengarry
presented by Merrimack Repertory Theatre
MRT Facebook Page

Directed by Charles Towers
Listing by Craig Idlebrook

Greed may not be good, as fictional stockbroker Gordon Gekko once famously espoused, but it never goes out of style.

In the 1987 film Wall Street, Gekko’s ode to greed was devastating to hear for Americans who had just suffered through insider trading and junk bond scandals. The late eighties also produced Glengarry Glen Ross, a razor-sharp play by David Mamet which examines greed on the micro-level, as bottom-feeding real estate agents in Buffalo lie, cheat and steal to sell tracts of land in Florida. While focusing on everyday financial crimes, Mamet creates an allegory for Wall Street greed that resonated with Main Street theatergoers in the late eighties. Continue reading →